Recently there has been increased awareness in society that materials must be recycled, making disposal of trash an area for social concern. Furthermore, use of recycled materials helps preserve natural resources and conserves energy by eliminating the energy requirement associated with converting these natural resources to industrial materials.
The storage of trash requires space, which is a prime consideration in today's kitchens. Space limitation for the storage of trash has largely been overcome by trash compactors which substantially reduce the volume of the trash, thus providing manageable levels. However, these devices provide for neither the sorting of trash nor the separate storage of sorted trash.
Separation of trash simplifies the recycling of reclaimable materials and, in some locations, is a requirement before material will be accepted for recycling. Storage systems which separate and consolidate trash find limited teaching in patent literature. The systems described therein at best offer partial solutions to the separation and storage of trash.
The separation of trash is addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,263 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,181. These patents require a redundancy of compaction equipment including multiple loading openings where each opening has a separate volume reduction device. The redundancy not only increases equipment requirements but also increases the space requirements. These factors make the systems of the '263 and the '181 patents not well suited for home use. Furthermore, these devices are designed to compact all materials and thus do not provide for "as is" storage.
Another approach to a storage system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,159 where glass and metal are crushed in the same compartment but in separate operations; the crushed materials are then diverted to separate compartments. In the system set forth in the '159 patent there is no provision for "as is" storage of trash. The ability to store glass "as is" is particularly important. In fact, in some communities glass will be accepted only "as is", ie. the uncrushed form. Furthermore, the compactor of the '159 patent is not well suited to the compaction and storage of plastic because, when the compaction pressure is removed, the plastic may elastically spring back and jam the compactor of the '159 patent.
Yet another approach to trash compaction is taken by U.S. Pat. No. 3,232,220, which is to crush a mixture of metal and glass and separate the materials after crushing The compactor of the '220 patent handles soft rubbish, such as paper, in a separate chamber. Handling soft rubbish as set forth in the '220 patent gives rise to redundant processing equipment, which again increases the space requirement. Also the '220 patent fails to make provisions for the separate storage of plastic so that it can be readily recycled. This system also suffers from the shortcoming that there is no provision for "as is" storage of glass.
Thus, while there have been multiple partial solutions to separating and compacting trash, there is a need for a space efficient trash storage and compacting system for home use where trash may be separated, stored and selectively compacted.